Detectives are treating the murder as a targeted attack but the motive for the killing has never been revealed.

The oldest unsolved murder on South Yorkshire Police's books dates back five decades to 1962 when pensioner Lilly Stephenson was battered to death in Springfield Place, Barnsley.

The second oldest case - the death of 13-year-old schoolgirl Anne Dunwell in May 1964 - was recently re-examined by detectives who were looking for possible links to killer Peter Pickering, who was known as the Beast of Wombwell and died behind bars in March this year.

Pickering was serving time for the murder of 14-year-old Shirley Boldy in Barnsley in 1972 and was expected to be charged with the unsolved murder of 14-year-old Wakefield girl, Elsie Frost, in 1965 when he passed away.

Rotherham girl Anne Dunwell’s naked body was found at the foot of a manure heap near Slade Hooton.

She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with her own stockings but despite the similarities between the schoolgirl deaths, Anne's murder remains unsolved.

The teenager was returning to her home in Whiston from her aunt's in Bramley on Wednesday, May 6, 1964 when she disappeared after setting off to catch a bus.

More recent unsolved cases include the death of 80-year-old Tommy Ward, who was battered in his home in Salisbury Road, Maltby, Rotherham, in October 2015 and robbed of his £30,000 life savings.

The former soldier suffered a smashed skull, fractured jaw and broken ribs in the attack and died in February 2016 .

A number of arrests have been made but nobody has been charged.

Another murder for which nobody has ever been charged is that of 27-year-old Joshua Green, who was stabbed to death during an altercation on the dance floor at the Stars and Mayfair club, Queens Road, Sheffield, in the early hours of New Year's Day 2012.

Detectives who investigated the death of the dad-of-two said there had been a reluctance of people to give evidence against those involved.

The fatal shooting of James Kamara, 22, in Brunswick Street, Broomhall, in 2009 also remains unsolved.

He was shot in drive-by shooting in what is believed to have been the result of an inner-city gang war.

A masked gunman was seen leaning out of the rear window of a silver Vauxhall Vectra - which was later found burnt out - killing James in a hail of bullets.

The police probe into the murder centred around South Yorkshire Police's belief that James and his friends were members of the WS10 Squaremen gang, based in Broomhall at the time, and that the rival S3 gang, from Burngreave and Pitsmoor, was responsible.

Three men stood trial over the murder but were acquitted.

James and his friends had been involved in a clash involving a rival gang in Eldon Street, Devonshire Green, 90 minutes before the shooting.

Detectives suspect that James was in the wrong place at the wrong time and that a friend, described as a leading member of the Squaremen, had been the gunman's target.

That same year, Sheffield takeaway owner Safrajur Jahangir, who ran the Spice Hut on Middlewood Road, Hillsborough, was shot dead as he pulled up outside a house to deliver an order placed by a bogus caller.

Moments after the 23-year-old pulled up in Scraith Wood Drive, Shirecliffe, he was shot twice in his head at point blank range.

Detectives believe he was shot by a contract killer, who died of a drug overdose a few days later.

Six men were prosecuted over the murder but their trial collapsed after it emerged that South Yorkshire Police failed to disclose all the evidence to the accused men's defence teams.

High Court Judge Mr Justice Sweeney QC branded the £1 million case 'a disaster for the criminal justice system' at the time.

There is also nobody behind bars for the shooting of 16-year-old Jonathan Matondo, of Verdon Street, Burngreave, who was gunned down in 2007 close to a children's playground in a postcode gang war which spiralled out of control.

The teenager was shot in his head at the Nottingham Cliff recreation ground in Burngreave, with police believing he was targeted by a rival gang.

The killing led to South Yorkshire Police chiefs revealing that armed gangs operating in Burngreave and Pitsmoor were involved in a long-running feud in the city.

Known as the S3 and S4 gangs, based on neighbouring Sheffield postcodes, they were responsible for a series of serious crimes including gun attacks and stabbings around that time.

The murder of 17-year-old Lindsey Scholes also remains unsolved, nearly 17 years after she was killed in an arson attack.

She had been staying with two friends at a house in Millgate Street, Royston, in September 2001 when an early morning blaze broke out as they slept.

The fire started at the front door after white spirit was set alight, causing flames and choking smoke to engulf the ground floor, trapping the trio inside.

Lindsey alerted friends Claire Duffy and Lee Burton to the fire and they both jumped to safety from an upstairs window.

But hysterical Lindsey, who was scared of heights, was too frightened to jump and hid in the bathroom waiting for help to arrive.

Firefighters found the youngster collapsed and unconscious and carried her out of the smoke-filled house, but she was burnt and had inhaled deadly smoke.

Her life support machine was switched off two days later after she was declared brain dead.

The killer responsible for the murder of 25-year-old Sheffield prostitute Michaela Hague is also still walking the streets - nearly 17 years after she was stabbed to death 19 times.

The mum-of-one, who had a five-year-old son at the time, was working as a prostitute when she was picked up by a punter in Bower Street in the city centre and driven to an isolated car park on nearby Spitalfields, off Nursery Street.

Anyone with any information about the murders should cal South Yorkshire Police on 101.

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